By Joseph Williams
Word in Black
The facts aren’t in dispute: for every dollar a White man earns, on average, a Black woman is paid 66 cents. Left unaddressed, it will take more than two centuries for Black women to bridge that particularly stubborn pay gap.
Now, Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester is attempting to put the issue high on the national agenda. The Delaware Democrat recently introduced a resolution declaring Black Women’s Equal Pay Day, spotlighting how the nation’s economy, as currently structured, is leaving Black women behind.
“America is one of the wealthiest economies in the world, yet Black women still have to work seven months longer to earn what white men do,” Blunt Rochester said in a statement.
The first-term senator is Delaware’s first Black senator and only the fourth Black woman to serve in the Senate’s 236-year history.
The resolution, she said, “affirms our commitment to closing this persistent gap.”
Some 32 Democratic lawmakers have signed on to the Senate resolution. Rep. Alma Adams, a Democrat from North Carolina, has sponsored the House version of the legislation.
“Today, we recognize the staggering wage inequity Black women face and recommit ourselves to addressing this injustice,” Adams said in a statement. “For too long, Black women have been forced to work twice as hard to get half as far, facing steep barriers, discrimination, and lack of opportunity to succeed. We cannot afford to wait 200 years to be paid what we’re owed. I’m proud to introduce this resolution and continue our fight for wage equity in America.”
Root causes
Experts say the pay gap stems from systemic racism and sexism that hasn’t been effectively for generations. The disparities not only make it harder for Black women to thrive but also have a harmful effect on Black children, families, and communities.
In a research poster on the subject, the Institute for Women’s Policy Research argued that the only way to close the wage gap is by implementing solutions focused specifically on what Black women need to thrive. They contend that policymakers “must approach the issue of Black women’s equal pay through an intersectional policy lens.”
“Gender and racial injustices are compounding factors that exacerbate discrimination against Black women,” including the lingering effects of slavery,” according to the paper. Black women’s work, it said, “is devalued and exploited,” and lack of generational wealth has “siloed many Black women into low- paying jobs with little to no benefits, support, or upward mobility.”
To help them reach pay equity “requires enforcement of anti-discrimination policies, educational support, salary transparency, comprehensive paid leave policies, reproductive health care access, and workplace protections at large,” according to the paper.
This article was originally published on WordinBlack.com.
Great Job Joseph Williams & the Team @ AFRO American Newspapers Source link for sharing this story.
